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Today I spent a good part of the day getting caught up on little projects. I had some stuff that I had been wanting to burn to CD for ages, plus I also dug out some important papers that I have been looking for for quite some time. Anyway, a long time ago I found a cassette at the Salvation Army. It was a very old looking cassette, like something from the 70s. There were no markings on it whatsoever. I mostly just bought it because it simply looked so antiquated. I think I may have paid 50 cents for it. I think I picked it up 3 or 4 years ago. All this time I had been meaning to play it just to see if there was anything on it. There was. I was amazed to hear the voices of two elderly folks coming from the tape. Quickly I realized that this was a tape that the couple had made for their daughter and their grandchild. Sort of an "audio letter". In the days long before webcams, Skype and e-mail, I think this was a popular form of communication. The couple spoke with a very thick, rural, New Brunswick accent. They sounded a lot like my parents, actually. They mostly just told their daughter about what was new, what had been happening in the neighbourhood, all the local gossip. They also spoke at length about a car accident the lady was in, and all the red tape she had to go through as a result of the accident. At one point they mentioned the good looking daughter of one of the local folks. The man said, in his thick country vernacular, "Oh she's got more boys chasing her than the hair on your head!". This made me smile widely. I grew up hearing voices like this. On one hand I felt very much like a voyeur listening to this tape, but on the other hand I just had to hear it...I can't explain why, but listening to these total strangers brought me much comfort. The whole time I was listening, I was dying to know just how old this tape was. I so wanted to know the year that this recording was made. At one point, the elderly man mentioned that it was "Saturday, August 23rd". I did some research, and the last time that August 23rd fell on a Saturday (apart from last year) was 1980. So essentially I was probably the first person to hear this tape in almost 30 years. I wonder why this tape was never sent. I almost feel like I have to take it upon myself to return this tape to the daughter, who would probably love to hear it. I bet there are millions of these types of artifacts from the past, sitting around gathering dust, and the person who would most enjoy them is none the wiser to their existence. Post a comment in response: |
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